Why are Martha’s actions unsatisfactory?
In his own ministry,
Jesus emphasizes feeding people,
providing wine and bread and fish;
dining, sharing, offering radical hospitality
to the point where he and his disciples are criticized for it.
Why is Martha criticized for doing what Jesus himself did?
[…]
Is Martha a cautionary tale for the overwhelmed?
Or do we hear in her,
the anguished voice of a woman
who sees her role and her ministerial responsibilities
being pulled away,
diminished,
dismissed,
and calling on her sister in ministry to come to her support?
And Mary…
Is Mary the model of a bold disciple,
claiming her space among the men,
or is she a figure that illustrates
the importance of women keeping silence?
I don’t know.
And none of the brilliant scholars
who study this story know, either.
All we can do is view Mary and Martha and Jesus
through the eyes of faith
and the crucible of our experience
and reflect on the possibilities—
knowing and trusting
that Christ is with us in the reflection.
We can embrace and emulate
the sisters' close relationship with Jesus,
a friendship so deep that they trust him
with their anger,
their silence,
their choices.
We know that later, they trust him even unto death,
as he commanded their beloved Lazarus to exit the tomb.
We can give thanks for their courage in following Jesus.
We know that Martha and Mary,
like other women we meet in Scripture,
lived lives of boldness,
whatever else the world may say about them.
--Susan Fleming McGurgan
To read Susan Fleming McGurgan’s remarkably insightful piece on the complicated story of Martha and Mary in its entirety (and worth every minute!), click here.
Image source 1: Martha and Mary in The Chosen, https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/shows/the-chosen-season-4-episode-5-ending-explained-jesus-visits-home-lazarus
Image source 2: St. John's Bible, There Is Need of Only One Things, https://magazine.berea.edu/summer-2015/a-year-with-the-saint-johns-bible-seeing-the-divine/
Quotation source
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